#intervue: Hassan Djirdeh, Author of Fullstack Vue

We're starting our #intervue article series with Hassan Djirdeh, author of Fullstack Vue and 30 Days of Vue. In our interview, he shares insights about his journey to become a Frontend Developer and author, and what he loves about Vue.js.

About #intervues: This article series gives you insights about creators from the Vue.js community. You can learn about their journey, stack, and projects.

Hassan Djirdeh

Author of Fullstack Vue & 30 Days of Vue

icon-locationCreated with Sketch.Toronto, ON

Can you tell us who you are and what you’re currently doing?

Sure! I’m Hassan 👋🏾, a Front End Developer based in Toronto, Ontario (Canada). I grew up elsewhere and came to Toronto in 2010 to begin studying for an Engineering degree. Upon graduation, I joined the digital consulting agency Deloitte Digital, where I started to help clients build and scale their front end applications. Today, I’m a Front End Developer in the Platform team within Shopify, here in Toronto.

What was your path to become a Front End Developer?

I had a pretty unorthodox journey to be doing what I do today. Back in University, I switched between Engineering disciplines trying to find what I would enjoy, but that never really happened.

In my first client facing project at Deloitte, I recall they needed support on the development side with which I managed to join in. From that, I had the blessed opportunity to both learn from some really talented people as well as start to enjoy what I do. In my free time, I then began reading learning material and building random hobby apps whenever I had the time. I’ve always enjoyed crafting and creating the UI of web applications, which lead me to become a Front End Developer.

What motivated you to get started with Vue.js?

I actually picked up Vue.js in my free time while I was still involved with other Front End frameworks/libraries. The main motivator was purely the documentation. I remember stumbling on the “Get Started” section and thinking that this looks really easy to get started with - and it was! From really enjoying how the API was structured and the great documentation - I just continued working with Vue whenever I had the chance.

How did you get into teaching and writing about Vue.js?

In my free time, I’ve always enjoyed teaching and writing blog posts about the various apps/tutorials that came to mind. That sort of was my first foray into teaching and writing about Vue.js.

After some time, my brother (shoutouts to @hdjirdeh!) was already working with the Fullstack publishing team on a few projects and noticed how invested I was working with Vue.js. He made the connection between the Fullstack team and me - and that began my first large scale Vue.js project - Fullstack Vue!

What advice would you give a friend who is starting out with Vue.js?

Since the Vue documentation is incredibly well laid out - that is the definite starting place I point people towards to. Once some familiarity is gathered with just the Vue core library itself, I then encourage people to start adding other pieces they might start to need in their apps (Routing/Flux like State Management/etc.).

What’s your current stack?

I always tend to use Node/Express for backend server work and recently have been relying on MongoDB for data persistence.

My front-end stack has always been sticking with the core Vue libraries - Vue/Vue Router/Vuex/Vue Test Utils. I’ve loved using Bulma as a CSS Framework for a long time - but have recently also fallen in love with Ant Design Vue.

What are your favourite Vue.js components or frameworks?

Nuxt will probably definitely be one of my favourite. I’ve been meaning to start using it more but it’s incredible!

Our #intervue series continues with an interview with Stefan Rasmussen, creator of grid.studio! This tool is a total Vue-ception: It's a website builder built with Vue.js that lets you build Vue.js websites with a drag'n'drop editor!